Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Aging II

"...a girl in a new dress . . . fresh and full of hope. No, she will not look in the mirror." (pg. 31)

Again, Cunningham shows how important the theme of age is to his novel. In this scene, Virginia is washing her face and refuses to look in the mirror. Instead, she chooses to pretend she is something else-- a young girl perhaps. Just like thousands of women all over the world, Virginia is in denial about aging. She cannot face the fact that she is growing old and thus growing closer to death. The urge to avoid aging and death is something that is built into human genetic code. It goes along with survival instinct. Virginian refuses to face (literally) her own age and prefers to pretend she is still a fresh girl full of hope-- something she idolizes but can no longer be. This is also an important part of Mrs. Dalloway, a book that Virginia Woolf wrote in the later part of her life as she was aging.